"At that moment, if I could have just disappeared, I would have ... But I had to just sit there and talk to him"

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September 15, 2014 10:41PM (UTC)

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told HuffPost Live on Monday that she "wasn't in a place" to tell off a male labor leader who harassed her about her looks, even though she wanted to. "I've just had a baby, I've just been appointed [to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate], I have a lot to learn, so much on my plate, and this man basically says to me, 'You're too fat to be elected statewide,'" Gillibrand said during an interview with HuffPost Live. "At that moment, if I could have just disappeared, I would have. If I could have just melted in tears, I would have. But I had to just sit there and talk to him. ... I didn't hear a word he said, but I wasn't in a place where I could tell him to go fuck himself."

In Gillibrand's new book, she said that one of her male colleagues in the Senate told her not to get too "porky" during her pregnancy, while another told her that he would still find her attractive even if she put weight on because he liked "chubby" women.

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Gillibrand received criticism for refusing to name names, but defended her decision during the interview. "It's more important to elevate the debate, to have a national debate about how women are treated in the workplace," she said. "Because in the broad scheme, it's a drag on the economy when you're undervaluing women, nearly half of our workforce, and chronically paying them less and treating them poorly and not valuing them."